Four-time Canadian hot-dog eating champ Christopher Eyre should have been one of the contenders stuffing his face at the Nathan’s wiener-wolfing contest in Coney Island yesterday – instead he faced the prospect of dining on jailhouse grub.

The 29-year-old was waiting last night to be arraigned on an assault charge for allegedly punching his wife, Justine Wheeler, in the face just hours before the afternoon chow-down.

Eyre slugged his 30-year-old wife in a fit of jealousy over a hot-dog-chomping rival – ex-football player William “The Refrigerator” Perry, who also signed up for the frankfurter feast, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

The couple had been spending time with Perry and other contestants at a press dinner in the South Street Seaport the previous evening.

Police said Eyre and his wife, both of Surrey, British Columbia, and a few of the other 14 contenders – including The Fridge – continued to party at the Sequoia, another Seaport restaurant.

The following morning, police received a call about a disturbance at the couple’s Holiday Inn hotel room on Gold Street.

“Justine became too friendly with William Perry,” Eyre told police when he was arrested at the hotel around 3 a.m, the sources said.